NSW Health will employ an independent team to carry out a policy "compliance check" with Hunter New England Health after senior doctors at John Hunter Hospital accused the health district of cooking the books on its elective surgery wait lists.
NSW Health Secretary Susan Pearce told Thursday's health Budget Estimates she had no reason to believe Hunter New England Health chief executive Michael Di Rienzo was not executing his role in any other way but to support his hospital and "do the best" with the funding he received.
"Our chief executives have very challenging roles," Ms Pearce said.
Ms Pearce was responding to questions by Greens MLC Cate Faehrmann, who asked the Health Secretary about a Newcastle Herald report that claimed 93 per cent of doctors who responded to a poll facilitated by the doctor's union had "no confidence" in the current leadership of Hunter New England Health, including its chief executive, Michael DiRienzo.
Ms Faehrmann asked whether the secretary was aware of the claims that 82 per cent of surgeons polled had said they had been asked to "routinely re-categorise" the clinical urgency of surgery in order to meet Ministry benchmarks.
"We have a policy with regard to the categorisation of surgery for patients," Ms Pearce responded.
"I've spoken to the chief executive in regard to that report and the issue that is being raised.
"We, at the request of the chief executive, will be assisting with a compliance check in regard to our policy, and how that is enacted at the John Hunter, and he has asked the Ministry to do that so it can be at arms length; and we will, in turn, hire an independent team to do that."
Ms Pearce said the policy did allow some flexibility to allow for patients to be categorised for a "variety of reasons", including surgeon unavailability, patients not being ready, or the need for surgery becoming more urgent.
"The policy clearly requires that the clinician is required to be involved in any reclassification of the patient, and that's important," she said.
"In respect of the commentary in that article... That there is this notion the hospital is somehow financially penalised as a consequence of KPIs, is categorically incorrect from a NSW Health perspective.
"We are looking at it with the chief executive... He has been told by his team there that they are certainly not aware of this issue in the way it has been described."
Ms Pearce said a meeting had been scheduled with the Board Chair of Hunter New England Health and representatives of the doctors who had raised these concerns.
Ms Pearce said an earlier article in the Newcastle Herald that quoted the chair of the Medical Staff Council said the council "didn't necessarily share the same view".
Ms Faehrmann said it was good to hear the NSW Health Secretary's assurances that the department was taking the matter seriously.
"There is no doubt that the alarming results of this poll and the resulting media coverage have spurred the department to act," she said.
"It was reassuring to hear there would be a degree of independence to any inquiries being undertaken, including in meetings that take place between the health leadership and the concerned medical specialists at John Hunter Hospital.
"I'll be keeping an eye on this matter and will continue to raise any issues with the Minister and the department should there not be genuine attempts by the local health district and the hospital management to do much better."
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